GamesCom 2011 Wrapup
Feature
So much to see, so little time! Two days on the floor and a week and a half of writing articles, and we're still not done, but we need to wrap up our GamesCom coverage. Oh, and does GamesCom have a future in Cologne?
It’s been a mad but adrenaline filled two weeks for many of us here at Hooked Gamers. GamesCom 2011 turned out to be one of the best ever and we had so much to write about that - despite a heroic effort - our editorial department simply couldn’t keep up with the flood of articles coming in. Today, we wrap up our GamesCom coverage. Not because we are done writing (we still have a few articles coming) but because we must. The expo ended a week ago and it is high time we move onwards.
You'll find the list of games we have covered below our musings about what's next for GamesCom itself.
What’s next for GamesCom?
It may to be difficult for GamesCom to do the same - moving onwards I mean. The organization announced that a staggering 275.000 people visited the Koelnmesse to attend the expo this year, making it the largest gaming event in the world by far. No small feat and it really shows just how popular gaming is. More importantly, it shows how much interest there is among gamers to experience their hobby in places other than at home sitting in their comfy chair.
But the Koelnmesse simply can’t keep up. It is a fantastically laid out conference center that can service a massive amount of people, but when it was built, it didn’t factor in gamers. We (gamers) can break anything, and we will. On the Saturday of the event, the Koelnmesse’s doors were closed around midday. With over 100.000 people inside at the same time it was no longer safe to let anyone in (and judging the movie below, it had been unsafe long before that). Ambulances were driving to and from the expo, picking up people who had fainted or otherwise fallen ill from the pressure inside.
And it was busier on the days before as well. The Wednesday is specifically for business and press visitors and even on that day, things were busier than last year. On Thursday, business, press and consumer visitors mixed and I noted several times how much busier it was than I was used to. While I’m sure there was some more room for people still, it was already close to being uncomfortable and the consumer waiting lines for seeing games such as Diablo, Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 were in excess of three hours. I'm wondering if the average Joe gets to see much at all.
To grow, it has to move
GamesCom 2011 already filled all of the big halls and the areas that were left are simply not suitable to service crowds. As it stands to reason that weekdays will always be less busy than the weekend, 275k seems to be as much as the Koelnmesse can reasonably handle. But the GamesCom organization is ambitious and wants to grow and I can only see it grow if it moves away from Cologne. Where to? I have no idea. Cologne is the perfect location to attract gamers from Germany, France, Belgium and The Netherlands and only a central location like that will do. But some place will have to be found to match the ambition.
Hooked Gamers GamesCom coverage
Skylanders Spyro's Adventure
Risen 2: Dark Waters
Brawl Busters
Mass Effect 3
Binary Domain
Torchlight II
Dishonored
Darksiders II
Prey 2
Jagged Alliance Online
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Salem
Prototype 2
Star Fox 64 3D
King Arthur II
UFO Online: Fight for Earth
Kid Icarus: Uprising
War of the Roses
Rage
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Wargame: European Escalation
Anno 2070
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Mario Kart 7
Legends of Pegasus
Luigi's Mansion 2
Ghost of Moscow: Death to Spies
Port Royale 3
The Dark Eye: Demonicon
Rayman Origins
Dungeons: The Dark Lord
The articles that didn’t make it into this wrapup will be posted throughout the coming week.